San Francisco Opera invites you and your family to attend FREE screenings of our Opera-in-an-Hour Movies presented throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. To learn about where you can catch a screening of our family friendly operas, click here.

On Monday, August 25 General Director David Gockley accepted San Francisco Ballet's challenge to participate in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Not only that, but Music Director Nicola Luisotti and six members of our executive staff stepped up to the challenge as well! On the front steps of the War Memorial Opera House and in front of a crowd of opera staffers and passers-by, the leadership of San Francisco Opera soaked each other with ice cold water in order to raise awareness for ALS (also known as Lou Gherig's disease). In addition, the opera gave a donation to the Les Turner ALS Foundation in honor of Jean Koplos, mother of our Director of Electronic Media, Jessica Koplos. Keep reading to see San Francisco Opera's top brass get soaked, and watch the video to find out who WE challenged to dunk themselves next.

Soprano MARIA VALDES is a first-year Adler Fellow who recently appeared as Susanna in Merola Opera Program’s 2013 production of The Marriage of Figaro, and covered the role of Magnolia in SFO’s summer 2014 production of Show Boat. An award-winner in the regional Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Valdes is also the winner of the top prize at the Corbett Opera Scholarship Competition at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She has been heard in concert with ensembles including the Georgia State University Singers, the Atlanta Chamber Players, the Atlanta Sacred Chorale, the choirs of Emory University, Bent Frequency, and the Bellingham Festival of Music in Washington. Valdes will make her San Francisco Opera debut this fall singing the role of Clorinda in Rossini’s La Cenerentola.

On July 5, 26,000 opera fans gathered at AT&T Park to watch our eighth live simulcast: La Traviata. While tweeting during performances is discouraged in the Opera House, at the Ballpark, anything goes.

On Saturday, July 5, a crowd of 26,000 opera fans and first-timers flocked to San Francisco Opera's eighth live simulcast at AT&T Park for a free evening of Verdi's La Traviata. The performances, which also entertained an audience of 2,600 at the War Memorial Opera House three miles across town, starred husband-and-wife team Ailyn Perez and Stephen Costello as the ill-fated lovers Violetta Valery and Alfredo Germont, and baritone Quinn Kelsey as Giorgio Germont. The performance also featured the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Resident Conductor Giuseppe Finzi. A diverse audience of all ages ranging from opera newbies to long-time opera aficionados came together to share a one-of-a-kind evening of fun, food and world class opera.

With the final performance of Madama Butterfly on July 9, let's take a moment and rediscover how artist and production designer Jun Kaneko took his first foray into opera design. Below is an excerpt from his 2011 book.

One sunny afternoon in early Spring 2003, I received an invitation to fly with Madama Butterfly. After a few months of consideration, I accepted and my journey designing scenery and costumes for Puccini’s Madama Butterfly began.

Introduction

Backstage at San Francisco Opera is a fascinating, fast-moving, mysterious and sacred space for the Company’s singers, musicians, dancers, technicians and production crews. Musical and staging rehearsals are on-going, scenery is loaded in and taken out, lighting cues are set, costumes and wigs are moved around and everything is made ready to receive the audience. From the principal singers, chorus and orchestra musicians to the creative teams for each opera, in addition to the many talented folks who don’t take a bow on stage, this blog offers unique insight, both thought-provoking and light-hearted, into the life backstage at San Francisco Opera.